"Run!" Lance yelled at the rest of the team. He hissed at the arms that squeezed around him, dragging him away from the lions and his friends. They looked at him in shock and Shiro stepped forward slightly as if to go after him.

"GO!" He screamed, tears rolling down his cheeks. Shiro flinched back and glanced back and forth between him and the lions behind them. With a small choke, they ran to the lions and took off leaving him in the hands of the Galra.

"After them!" One of the Galra commanded, there were several nods before they deployed chasing after the lions but were quickly thwarted when the Castle jumped into a wormhole instead.

"Commander Thrak, we lost them," a voice said into the coms. Thrak clenched his jaw with a growl and shook Lance in frustration.

"Where are they going?" He hissed. Lance laughed slightly and gave him a tiny smirk.

"You actually believe that I'm going to tell you anything?" It was kind of the truth, it wasn't like Allura told them in the briefings where they would be teleporting after the mission was complete. Even if he did, he wouldn't tell them of course.

"Very well paladin," he chuckled throwing him to the sentries. He yelped as the metal arms wrapped around him tightly, bruising his skin through the armour.

"Take him to a cell," he commanded, the sentries nodded and started dragging him out of the room, despite his struggles against them.

"We will speak later paladin," he stated ominously.

"Looking forward to it," he smirked locking eyes with the galra. He grunted as the sentries carried him out of the room.

"Before we start, I'll give you the chance to give me the information that I want," Thrak announced pacing around the table that Lance was strapped to. Lance's eyes followed him as he walked around his body. He was stripped from his armour and put in a pair of plain black trousers instead.

"I already told you that I'm not telling you anything," Lance rolled his eyes and tested his bonds. Thrak let out a sign and walked up beside Lance.

"Maybe some persuasion would help you," he said waving his hand. Lance looked at it in confusion and looked in the direction he was gesturing to. A figure with a cloak glided in, didn't Shiro or Allura call them druids? He wasn't exactly sure but it wasn't important right now anyway.

"You're allowed to do anything to make him talk, without seriously injuring him, we need him alive," he growled at the druid, pointing a clawed finger at them.

"Understood," they hissed skulking forward to run cold fingers along Lance's chest. Lance flinched and struggled to push away from the creature. A deep sense of unease bloomed in his chest as he looked at the glaring mask.

"Good," Thrak said turning and moving to the door. He turned as he was leaving the room and smirked at Lance.

"Good luck paladin," Lance glared at him as the door slid shut and he was left in the quiet of the room. What could this thing do that Thrak couldn't. They didn't look like they'd be able to fo much to him, considering the lack of weapons in the room, he wasn't too worried about himself. However, the feeling of unease didn't leave him and he usually trusted his instincts, so he wasn't able to completely let his guard down yet.

"So what? We going to have a nice chat? A little heart to heart?" Lance said playfully with a grin.

"I don't think so," they replied. Even though he couldn't see any part of their face, he could practically feel the smirk on their face. Lance quirked a brow at the comment when they didn't offer up any more explanation.

"We'll start off small," they said laying their hand on Lance's chest. He looked at it in confusion before he arched in the hand as pain took over his body. His mind went a million miles an hour as he tried to comprehend what his body was experiencing.

Every single jolt of agony that ran through his body was followed by a question from the druid. He never gave them anything though, too confident in the fact that his team would be able to rescue him. They would never leave him here to rot.

He didn't know how long it would take though. He was confident that he would be able to last at least a few weeks without giving them any information. Hopefully, they would come sooner rather than later.

______________________________________________________

Shiro snuck through the galra ship's hallway only a few days later. The rest of the team were successfully distracting the main forces as he searched for their missing paladin. He tried not to think of his own experiences at the hands of the galra during his missing year. It was why they came to Lance's rescue as quickly as they were able, he couldn't be subjected for long, it would destroy him. He ducked around a corner as he spotted a druid leaving a room ahead of him. He froze in fear, remembering them from his brief flashes of memories from their experiments.

He waited until it was completely out of his sight before running to the room it left. He both hoped that Lance was and wasn't in this room. He would be able to get him out sooner, but on the other hand, he didn't want Lance to be a subject like he was. He pressed his galra hand to the reader and let out a sigh of relief when it slid open without a problem.

"Lance," he breathed out walking quickly to the paladin strapped to the table. Lance blearily looked up at him, his whole body was shaking. He wasn't sure what it was from, fear? Pain? Maybe even both.

"Shiro," Lance sobbed out in relief, eyes squinting as tears rolled down over his ears onto the table. Shiro quickly cut through the restraints and turned to the door to watch for any guards that could come in.

"Let's go, we don't have much time," Shiro said moving quickly towards the door. He waited by the door expecting Lance to touch his back to keep moving when he was ready.

"Shiro," a meek voice called out. He turned and saw Lance still laying on the table, barely having moved from his original spot. He raced back over and saw his body violently trembling, even more so from when he first came in.

"I can't get up," he admitted with a shaking voice, staring up at the ceiling. Shiro sucked in a breath and wrapped an arm around his back and lifted him into a sitting position, but even in this position, he was lying limply over the arm. He helped him put his feet on the ground and stood him up, hoping that he just needed to get his blood flowing. He took his hands off of him when he stood steady and backed away. Lance took only one step before he collapsed to the ground. Shiro immediately swooped down and scooped him up into his arms.

"I'm going to have to carry you," Shiro said urgently as they moved to the door again.

"Sorry," Lance said quietly from where his cheek was pressed into Shiro's chest armour. Shiro held him tighter as he began running in the direction of where the black lion was waiting for them.

"Don't apologize, Lance, I'm the one that left you behind in the first place," he whispered. The ashamed feeling returned two-fold as he looked at the shape that Lance was in.

"What did they do to you?" He asked hesitantly, not sure if he was alright to breach the topic yet.

"I don't know, the druid just touched me and I felt pain everywhere," Lance answered, trying to tilt his head up to look up at Shiro but failing. Shiro gulped at the news, he remembered one of the other prisoners that had that happen to them. After a few days they weren't able to move again and they were killed by the guards. He didn't have much time before it was too late for Lance. They needed to be in the Castle now. He picked his pace up, closer to a full sprint now.

"Why are you going faster?" Lance asked quietly. Shiro couldn't bring himself to answer and hoped that Lance would forgive him for ignoring him.

"Shiro, you're scaring me,"

"I'm sorry Lance, I just want you to get taken care of as soon as possible," he said looking down at him. It wasn't exactly a lie, he did want to get Lance to safety. Lance seemed to take the truth as a whole though and didn't question him again. He got into the hallway of the hanger he highjacked when blaring alarms sounded through the ship.

"Attention all on board personnel, the blue paladin has escaped confinement, all units to sector 7 to search for the paladin," Shiro gasped and ducked into one of the supply rooms along the hallway. They were in the most populated hallway of the ship and they wouldn't be able to leave for a while if there were as many soldiers on board as Pidge had said. He sat crouched on the floor near the door, listening as boots marched past the door every few seconds. His stomach clenched in sympathy when he looked down at Lance again and saw he trying to lift his head up. With a trembling hand, he lifted Lance's chin up to lessen the strain on his neck.

"Thanks, Shiro," he said earnestly with a smile on his face.

"No problem," he choked out after a moment. He never felt this helpless in his life, he had brought a portable med kit with him in case Lance was in bad shape when he got to him, but it was useless just like he was right now.

"I'm so sorry Lance," he whimpered pressing his forehead against the side of Lance's head. "We shouldn't have left you here,"

"I wanted you to go, it was either one of us or all of us," he replied trying to sound reassuring but his voice cracked in the middle.

"I knew that you guys were going to come for me though," he said in a much more reassuring voice. Shiro didn't say anything, just closed his eyes and focused on the noise outside of the door.

"Shiro?"

"Yeah?"

"I can't feel my hands or feet,"

Shiro's world was shattering around him. He started praying that the guards would go faster, or he was going to jump out risks be damned. His devastated eyes caught on Lance's terrified ones. He had never seen the teen exude anything but pure strength and hope, but it looked like that hope was running out quickly. He couldn't take this anymore. He shot to his feet, Lance's head once again rolling to rest on his chest and sprinted towards the hanger. It was almost like someone was finally taking pity on them and let them get to Black without seeing a single galra.

"We're heading out," Shiro said shakily into the coms, not even taking the time to lay Lance on the floor of the cockpit before they were taking off out of the ship.

"Is he okay?" Hunk asked worriedly. Shiro looked at Lance's face and gulped.

"I don't know," he said honestly. They started rapid firing questions at him and he almost turned his com at the overwhelmingness of it all.

"Can we please wait until we get Lance in a pod?" he asked meekly. They weren't used to Shiro sounding so drained and quieted down without a second thought. Relief flooded through Shiro as the Castle quickly came into view. He didn't dock Black as well as he usually would but he was also almost out of his seat by the time her paws touched the hanger floor. He didn't even greet the other paladins before he was sprinting down the halls to the med bay and starting up a pod. He was thankful that Coran taught them all how to use the pods in case he wasn't there. By the time Hunk, Keith, and Pidge arrived at the bay, Lance was already in the pod and on his way to healing.

"Get work getting him here so quickly," Hunk said clapping him on the back.

"Yeah and getting him out of there," Keith added coming to his other side and placing his hand on his shoulder. They waited for any type of encouraging speech from their leader but he didn't look away from Lance's pod.

"Shiro? Are you okay?" Pidge asked coming around in front of him.

"I feel so terrible," he admitted with a sob cradling his face in his palms. His shoulders shook as tears leaked between his fingers and soaked his gloves.

"Why?" Hunk asked in confusion. They had gotten Lance back in record time and it didn't look like he was very damaged.

"We shouldn't have left him, now I don't even know if he is going to be okay," Shiro cried looking over at Hunk.

"He looks pretty okay to me," Pidge said, her face pushed close to the glass of the pod.

"You didn't see him, he couldn't move, he could barely talk, I never thought I would see Lance that weak," he sniffed miserably.

"Shiro, everything worked out fine, Lance is going to be okay," Keith said. Shiro only nodded his head and wiped his face before sitting in front of the pod, clearly intent on waiting until Lance got out.

They sighed before leaving the med bay, coming back soon with blankets, snacks, and water for the wait ahead of them.

Shiro didn't leave his spot for anything other than a few bathroom breaks until Lance was released from the pod and assured Shiro himself, that he was fine. I was no surprise that Lance told him to shut up after he apologized for the eighth time. He wasn't being malicious, he knew that Shiro just cared about him.